The Cruise of the Branwen

CHAPTER VII THE WREATH OF OLIVE Ov J.1.fV ')'<lf µ.ii(ov ICA.£0f d.vipor cJq,pa ICEV yaw ff 8 1Touulv TE plfa ,cal XEpulv ifju,v . AFTER a delay until the evening on Wednesday for the next heat in our epee team fight, it was so late and dark that we had to leave the competition with the Belgians unfinished, and we returned with some relief to the hotel to find out what our compatriots had been doing elsewhere. It appeared that though beaten in one of the bicycle races, we had won the twenty kilometres, in which W. T. Pett of Putney came in easily first in fast time. Abrahams, Healey, and Reed had also won their respective heats in the pre– liminaries of the hundred metres in the stadium, with Robertson, and Barker also qualified for the final. Halswell and Crabbe had safely got through the first round of the half mile. On Thursday morning our epee team, en– tirely recovered from the fatigue and annoy– ance of fighting in the dark the night before, did excellently well in the completion of their match with Belgium, winning three fights out of the last four, and thus qualifying for the final by a superiority of five points. 76